TakeruK

I also wrote a brief thank you email soon after receiving the offer and asked whatever clarification questions necessary. So, I would wait a while, 3-5 days maybe, before writing a thank you note since you might not have questions until a few days later. But I think it is also fine if you do not respond until you have a decision.

Is this fee at least a deposit towards other fees you will have to pay when you start the school? If so, then this is common, and I usually see deposits in the range of $250-$500 (more than application fees). However, if this is a fee that is in addition to other fees you'll have to pay, then that is strange and unusual, at least in my field -- I've never seen something like that before (but my experience is obviously not completely exhaustive!!)

Oh another thing--I've found that heating the peppers directly first helps increase the spice (especially if you keep the seeds/membranes in). So, I try to start my spicy dishes with a little oil and peppers first before adding the sauce part. I notice you said you were using a slow cooker -- are you heating up your paste / peppers directly first before adding it to your slow cooker stock etc.? If not, it's a little more work but it might be worth trying!

I agree that it's really hard to truly know someone in just a couple of days (or less) and that there are plenty of people whom you might not get along with on the first few days but can really gel with later on! Also, sometimes people are just really stressed out, preoccupied or just tired after visiting X schools in a row and they just aren't feeling super social and friendly. I do think your cohort matters though, but I don't really mean that you need to be BFFs right away. What I mean when I say "cohort matters" is the environment/climate of the graduate student community that you think might form. Also, in my field, cohorts tend to be on the order of 4-5 people, so I think it might matter a little more than other fields with cohorts of 30-50 people. All of these examples are going to be personal though since it depends on what you find important. For me, one of the personalities I do not enjoy being around is that confrontational person that will challenge everything you say / debate every issue academically even if we are just discussing something like what pizza toppings to get. And if I feel that the current graduate student environment encourages this type of person to continue this, I would probably not want to go to that school as much. Another reason cohort could matter is if you find yourself a minority in the group. If you are the only minority (whether it's race, gender, socioeconomic class etc.) in a large group (let's say 20 for sake of saying a number), the experience can be less than ideal. That is, when I think about the importance of your cohort, I'm really thinking about red flags that would warn you away from the school, not necessarily looking for people you can instantly be friends with. But whether or not these red flags would "trump" other factors like advisor fit etc. would really depend on the situation!

Do you know if the US will only grant one single entry visa for you for the entire length of your degree? It won't be easy, but generally, students on single-entry visas can apply for another visa when they are outside of the US so that they can re-enter. This means that you can leave, but it might be weeks before you get the visa to return. However, many international students go away for about a month during a slow time (e.g. December or a summer month) so that they can visit home and reapply for another visa. However, keep in mind that this means you cannot go on international conferences very easily because as soon as you leave the US, you will need to get another visa so that might mean you are away from your school for the time it takes to process your visa! I'm not sure if you are eligible for a third party visa (you can only apply for a visa while you're outside the US, but you don't always have to be in your home country). All of this is not to encourage you to go to the US I just wanted you to have more information in case it helps. I agree with all of the above about the wonderful things said about McGill!

I think having nationwide averages is very important. Not just for comparing your offers, but for graduate student communities at each school to use this data to leverage their schools into adjusting stipend policies, if necessary. Whenever we want to talk to our school about increasing support for graduate student whatever (stipends, health benefits etc.), the first thing we're asked is "how do we compare to other schools?", especially if it's a financial request. So a database of national stipend averages would be great (of course, one would have to factor in cost of living, but that data is already available). In my fields, most schools provide decent funding information. Many schools even have a breakdown of funding sources on their application pages. Sometimes it's not so easy to find though -- it's often found at the Graduate School website and those are usually typical funding numbers across the whole school, not just your department. But still, you get a good ballpark guess of what grad students at this school earn.

The Thai Kitchen prepared sauces are super convenient but as you said, not very spicy!! What kind of hot peppers are you adding? If you want to emulate Thai restaurants, go for these peppers (called "Thai peppers" in my grocery stores, conveniently enough): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird%27s_eye_chili(probably easiest to match up the picture). If you are already experienced cooking with these types of peppers, I apologize for any over-explanation: I would use probably 3-4 peppers per serving in the sauce, if you want to really spicy. But if you haven't tried these before, maybe start with one and ramp it up. For full effect, chop up the peppers and include the seeds/membrane (more seeds/membranes = more heat!). Edited to add: And if you really really want to add more heat, do what my family does and just have a couple of them on the side of your plate and take bites from the raw peppers as you eat your meal. I can't handle this much heat though, but I'm the spice wimp of my family, so maybe you'll fare better

This is hard to do remotely. It is possible that you are able to sign a lease while not in the same city, but it is very risky to sign a lease on an apartment you have not seen. It could be completely different than advertised! Or worse, the whole thing could be a scam and there is no actual apartment at all and the scammer just takes your first months rent or deposit and disappears. Here are some options: 1. If your university has graduate student housing, can you stay there for the first month (or semester or year, whatever the requirement is) and then look for an apartment after you arrive and get settled? My current school allows you to end your lease with the graduate student housing early for a fee (about 40% of one months' rent -- not tiny but better than stuck paying rent for an entire year in a place you don't like). 2. Can you arrive a few weeks early and stay in a hotel/motel while you look for an apartment? Be careful with this one because some cities have fairly long "notice to vacate". For example, in our last city, tenants give their landlords 60 days notice to vacate so a lot of apartments for Sept 1 are already leased in early July. However, even in these cases, there were still apartments available at the end of August for a September move-in date. Unfortunately, this means the majority of the choice apartments would already be taken, so you might end up with some place that isn't very nice, or is nice but way overpriced. 3. If you are able to somehow verify that the apartment exists and that you would like it (maybe you have a friend in the city, or someone in the graduate program is nice enough, or a friend that lives close enough) then it's possible to sign a lease while not in the country. For our first move, my wife and I visited a few apartments on a quick trip to the new city and finished up the lease by mailing documents back and forth. So while this is possible, it's not ideal and it could be tricky if you don't have a US bank account. You will probably need to pay deposits and other fees in US dollars, and you will need to find a landlord that is willing to deal with leasing the apartment to you. This may or may not be difficult, depending on how easy it is for them to just lease to someone local instead of having to deal with the extra hassle. 4. Some people actually visit the city one month (or 2 months if it's 60 days notice to vacate) in advance and view apartments and sign leases ahead of time. My wife and I were able to do this both times we moved far away for school. The first time, we were able to afford it because we got our flights entirely on points. The second time, we had a friend in the city so we were able to stay there for free while we looked for apartments. The flight was still expensive and we would have spent about $600 each to fly there but the airline screwed up our flights and ended up reimbursing us for $2000 (we had to also incur a few extra costs because of travel delays but overall we still ended up with a free trip). However, given that average rent where we live now is about $1400, we decided that it was totally worth 2/3rds of 1 months rent to ensure we didn't sign a 1 year lease (worth over $16,000) on a place we didn't like. Or to put it another way, the cost of going there and finding an apartment we'd like for sure is only 2% of the total amount we'd spend on rent over the 5 years we'd live there. Also, this trip into the US allowed us to pre-move a few essential items and do a few important errands like open a US bank account and transfer some money so that we'd have immediate access to US funds as soon as we arrived for good. However, depending on how far away you mean by "outside the country" and whether or not you have savings, this option might not be possible!

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To add to iphi's advice, if, on the other hand, you do want to do research and get into a research PhD program then you might want to get your undergraduate degree from a University. However, a very common path is to do the first 2 years at a college (much cheaper tuition**, and in some cases, better instruction since the people there are hired to teach, not to do research) and then transfer to a University to take 3rd and 4th year courses and finish your degree. Depending on your transfer credits, it takes between 2.0 and 3.0 years at University to finish off a degree. In the end, you will receive the same degree as a student who went to University for 4 years, but you save a few thousand dollars in tuition. (** In general, tuition at a college is about $3000/year, which is much more affordable than $5000-$7000/year that most Universities charge. Also, colleges tend to have part-time rules that are more flexible, which means it's possible and usual for students to work part-time in order to pay tuition. When you get to University, summer research positions might help bridge the gap and pay for the extra tuition).

It really depends on the school. In my current program, funding is fixed at $30,000 per year unless you have a fellowship that specifically pays more for stipend support. So, NSF holders take home about $32,000 per year. My campus has a minimum stipend set to $28,000 and a maximum stipend of $38,000. The maximum stipend is hard to reach (the median on campus is about $30,000) and usually only possible in special cases. For example, I know one person that is a dual citizen of Canada and the US and won both the NSF and NSERC (Canada's NSF) graduate student awards (totalling $50,000 of stipend support). So, instead of maxing out at $38,000 for three years, they chose to defer one award for 3 years, so that they have 6 years of total support. In Canada, we pay tuition out of our stipend packages so unlike the US numbers above, Canadian grad schools generally think of stipend in terms of pre-tuition numbers. At my last program, the pre-tuition (tuition is only $7000 though) stipends ranged from $24,000 (no fellowships) to $40,000 (NSERC doctoral fellowship), or even $50,000 (a special super prestigious award).

I know that this phase is often the most stressful time, when we might not have any offers, or we have some offers to some of our lower choices but still waiting to hear back from some of our top choices. But that doesn't mean we have to aggressive towards each other about this! I suggest these guidelines, which can really just be summarized as "don't be a jerk": 1. Don't be a jerk and procrastinate on making your decision. Once you do have enough information to make a decision, go ahead and make it. For example, if you know for a fact that you will go to one of your top 3 choices and you got into all 3, it's a good time to decline/withdraw all your other schools. Or, if there is a safety school that you no longer need, go ahead and decline it. Don't rush yourself though and give yourself time to visit the school and think carefully about how you want to spend your next 5-7 years. It's fine to take time if you need it to make the best decision for yourself, but don't be a jerk and just procrastinate until April before you seriously start thinking about your future. That is, don't treat this like a homework assignment--just because the deadline is April 15 does not mean you should wait until then to decide (unless you need the time). 2. Don't be a jerk and rush others into making a decision. They deserve your acceptances and have worked hard to get here, just like you. Every accepted applicant deserves the time necessary to make the right decision for them. And sometimes that means waiting for other offers. For example, there might be a 2-body problem so one partner has to wait until the other hears back from the schools in the same area to decide. Or, other information might be missing, such as waiting for the announcement of national fellowships (I believe these get released in early April). It's also important to realise that just because a waitlist exists doesn't mean that if someone declines, someone from the waitlist will get in. A school that wants 20 new students might make offers to 30 students, knowing that usually only, say, 40% of offers are taken. So they might only fill a few spots from the waitlist even though many people will be declining. Or, they might change their mind and just take a smaller class after all. You also don't know if the waitlist is something like 10 students, or all 200 students that met all minimum qualifications. Don't count on waitlist status meaning anything. Don't be a jerk and blame/guilt those with offers for the decision that the school made. We're all in this together.

I just signed up for a airline credit card a few months ago. I plan to have this card for a year (first year fees waived) and then cancel it and maybe get on another airline rewards card. I am currently on the United MileagePlus Explorer card (offered through Chase bank). If you spend $2000 in the first 3 months, you get 50,000 bonus miles, which is good for two round-trip flights within the US. There's also some bonuses for adding a secondary cardholder (e.g. spouse) and you earn decent miles towards United. United is my US airline of choice because they are in the same airline alliance (Star Alliance) as my Canadian airline of choice (Air Canada). For personal travel, we save money by combining work travel with personal travel. For example, the only two times I've been to Europe were for conferences (one in France, one in England). For both trips, I stayed in the country for two weeks--the first week was the conference then my spouse flew out and the second week was vacation. It effectively reduces the cost of the flight in half since I don't have to pay for my flight!! Also, I earn reward points when I fly for work so we try to use reward points (and credit cards like the one mentioned above) in order to get my spouse's airfare for free or discounted. Another tip is to do your research carefully. In some places, the "CityPass" is a good deal -- gets you in a lot of places for cheaper than paying face value and you also get to skip the line. But in others, the CityPass contains admissions to things you're not interested in and it's far better to just buy tickets yourself. You can also book hotels for cheaper if you book in advance. However, most of these discounted prices require a payment upfront and if you end up not traveling, you will lose the money (well, you will have to apply it to another booking, but they won't refund it). However, some credit cards (like the one I mentioned above) has automatic travel insurance that will let you cancel your book under some circumstances. It's also handy to note that if you don't want to take the no-refunds risk, you can usually book at the AAA member price (if you have AAA membership) for almost the same price as the 21 day advance purchase price (I've found that it's usually $5 more per night) but it's completely refundable. Overall, I think the number one tip is to make sure you get something out of every dollar you spend. The other credit card I had also had points and last summer, we redeemed them to buy a projector for a home theatre system. In the first 2 years we were here, we have been able to redeem about $800 worth of stuff from Amazon from our credit card purchases. I charge everything on my card, even $1.75 coffees because why not. I noticed that the biggest expenses are groceries and eating out so I got a credit card that gives me 1% back in points for all purchases but 5% back for restaurants. Finally, another money saving travel tip is to go to grocery stores while traveling to get supplies like water bottles, snacks, etc. It's a huge ripoff to buy them at tourist traps! Depending on the trip, we try to buy sandwich materials and other lunch foods and eat them for breakfast and lunch, so that we have more money to have a nice dinner while on vacation. Maybe making your own sandwiches doesn't sound appealing for a vacation, but given that a lunch at a restaurant can be around $30-$40 for the two of us, doing this even just two or three times is enough to splurge on other things! And making it into a nice picnic makes it more fun!

For the same reasons you state, prospective graduate students in the sciences are also discouraged from applying/attending programs where there is only one person that they might want to work with. I only applied to schools that had at least 3 people with related interests and when I visited the programs, I looked for at least 2 people I could see myself working with, just in case the first person I worked with did not work out.

Hope it works out! Just wondering, once you got the offer, why didn't you contact this distinguished professor yourself to ask if he/she is taking on students? In my field, this is the first thing I ask, before even applying, so that I don't waste everyone's time if most of the profs I want to work with are not actually taking students that year. Even young profs might not take students if they somehow ended up with more students than they expected the previous year!

I agree with the above -- ask the schools to not issue any I-20s yet. For my school, after accepting the offer, the International Office contacted me for additional details required to issue the DS-2019 (J-1 equivalent of I-20). So, if you don't provide this information right away, you won't get an I-20 from them since they won't have the info needed to issue a I-20.

Usually the funding info comes with the official letter, but this could be field dependent. I would probably reply to the email saying that you are excited for the opportunity and will look forward to more information. You could also ask about a chance to visit the department if that is normal in your field. I would probably wait a week to see if the official letter arrives and if the letter does not arrive, or if you still have questions (about funding or other aspects) after you get the letter, then email back to followup Congrats!!

I am not 100% sure what you meant in the first paragraph. But I would not try to pre-empt a scheduling conflict unless you actually have an offer from this third school. I would not "play games" by trying to do things like dropping dates/names of other schools to indicate you have offers elsewhere. If, for some reason, you think it would help your chances of admission by letting them know you got into two other schools then just email the DGS directly and say so. I really doubt it would help though because no one likes hearing "hey other school X accepted me, so you should too!" That's not how grad admissions work. You can use other offers to ask for an earlier decision (if the other offers expire soon) or to negotiate for a better offer (but only if you already have an offer or somehow know that you will be getting an offer for sure).

Almost all schools will only reimburse for economy or coach class tickets. But as others said, if you get elite status with airlines, you can get upgraded. Grad students don't usually travel enough in 1 year to get elite status until their final year(s) but professors are often get upgraded. Sometimes, if you are lucky, your advisor will purchase your ticket with theirs (on the same reservation) and they will allow a companion fare upgrade too, but this doesn't happen very much. Usually, when I travel with my advisor, we both get economy seats but then they get upgraded at the gate!

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When you say you were "accepted to be a phd student for [your first choice prof]", was this a formal written offer? Nothing is certain until you get a written letter saying you are accepted to work with Prof X. Most Canadian schools treat grad student positions are like jobs and basically you didn't end up getting selected for the position you wanted. But, you have an alternate opportunity with another professor. Most Canadian schools will send all applications around the department to all professors and this other position probably opened up because the other professor thought you would be a good fit for them. Yes, you could try to contact your first choice professor and ask if he would reconsider. There could be a lot of reasons why the first choice prof cannot take you -- maybe it's because another student came along and they wanted the other student more than you, or maybe it's because some funding fell through and they can no longer support an additional student. I think it might be a good idea to contact your first choice professor again and ask what happened. But sometimes pushing your way into their lab group might not work out for the best. Once you have done that, if you are not offered a position with the first choice professor, then it might be a good idea to talk to the other professor about their work and see if that might be interesting to you after all. Then, you could choose to work on the other project or basically consider yourself rejected if you have no interest in the other prof's work.

It's far better to have no students than students that are not good fits (whether it's ability, research interest, or personality).

I would follow up with your POI and discuss how financial aid for the program would work. That is, how competitive are TA/RAships, and when would you know etc.

That does make it tougher. One of your cohort-mates might be weirded out if someone they never met before contacted them out of the blue. Also, I'm not sure getting in touch would really provide that much useful information since you didn't get to know them that well so knowing if they are attending or not wouldn't make a huge difference? In your case, I would probably say to base your evaluation of community based on the current students since those are the ones you've met. I would guess that at smaller programs, the sense of community will be strong so that it will stay mostly intact from year to year. Prospective students will see that the current students are a certain way and choose to attend or not based on how well they would fit in, so that from one year to the next, the overall dynamic should change only slowly. In bigger programs, there could be more changes from year to year, but at the same time, more people means it is more likely you will find at least one person you can bond with. To answer your question directly, I think it would be weird to ask the program director for things like contact information and decision status of the others in your cohort at this point. However, asking for general things like the total # of people with an offer, the ratio of women to men (more important in some fields than others), the split between research interests/subfields, etc. should be okay. This was all information provided to us at the visits though, for visits on the main visiting dates as well as visits on alternate dates. At one school, they used to take headshots of us as soon as we arrived and post them online / flyers around the department so that current members know that we are visiting. After my year though, they stopped putting them online (I think headshots for internal distribution was fine and although I didn't say anything, I was a little uncomfortable that they were online too, but all's well that ends well, I guess). In many science fields, some cohorts can be predominantly male (I know one recent incoming class in another department had only 2 women out of 20 students that chose to attend). So I think if you are seriously considering a school and it's closer to the deadline, it is perfectly fine to ask the program director (or other equivalent person) for some updated numbers like how many students have already accepted and how many of them are X where X can be gender, research speciality etc. If you really want to get in touch with the people that have accepted, one possible way is to ask the program director to forward your email address onto the students that have already accepted the school's offer and let them reach out to you if they are comfortable.

If you put conferences and presentations into one heading, I would not put this presentation there because that implies academic presentations. Personally, I have a teaching and outreach section in my CV and I put things like this there, along with any public lectures etc.